New Year’s Day Mags

Still Life with Dahlias, Wine Glass and Fruit (detail). George Leslie Hunter, c.1913 © National Gallery of Ireland

My mum is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. She now resides in a Nursing Home. I take her out from the Nursing Home on day trips whenever she is in good form.

On one such occasion – New Year’s Day this year – Mum joined us for dinner. As it was New Year’s Day, it was dinner with all the trimmings. She ate a starter, main course and dessert and must have being feeling very full after she had eaten it all!

My brother had also been invited to dinner, but he was running late and told us to go ahead and eat. We had finished eating and were still at the table drinking tea when he arrived.

He joined us at the table and I began serving his dinner. He was just about to tuck into the food when Mum turned around to me with a very cross face and said, ‘What has someone to do around here to get something to eat?’ I was shocked, as she had just finished eating. She was getting so agitated about not being fed, that I refilled her plate and she finished it all! Minutes later, she had no memory of eating at all.